By Dave McKee
In response to Israel’s now twenty-month genocidal campaign against Gaza, the world has seen thousands of demonstrations as millions upon millions of people have mobilized to call on their governments to sever relations Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, impose arms embargos on Israel, and implement Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the apartheid regime.
As a result of the pressure, governments like Canada’s are finally beginning to take moves in the right direction. Ottawa’s June 10 announcement that Canada will impose sanctions on Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – in coordination with Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Norway – is welcome news, if severely overdue. The sanctions, imposed under the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA), will freeze assets of the two senior Israeli ministers and prevent them from entering Canada.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are two of the Israeli most ultra-nationalist and far-right government figures. They have openly championed genocidal violence, ethnic cleansing and increased colonization of Palestinian land.
While Ottawa has used SEMA to target Israeli settler violence, this is the first time that Canada has gone after government officials. As Rebecca Steckle of Just Peace Advocates said, “we are glad to see Canada finally responding to movement demands to target not just low-level settlers, but the powerful Israeli officials fueling violent settler expansion and entrenching apartheid.”
But in the face of these developments, the Israeli government appears to be doubling down on its genocidal positions and is now escalating its campaign against Palestine solidarity activists across the globe.
On June 8, Israeli forces attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s Madleen boat in international waters, kidnapping and detaining its crew in Israel.
This act constitutes a serious violation of human rights and international norms. According to International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions, war crimes include acts such as kidnapping, torture and inhumane treatment of civilians. In addition, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea establishes that acts of violence or arbitrary detention in international waters are illegal.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla had attempted to break Israel’s illegal blockade on the occupied Gaza Strip and provide desperately needed humanitarian supplies to the estimated 500,000 people facing starvation there.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said of the attack that “Israel has once again flouted its legal obligations towards civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip and demonstrated its chilling contempt for legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice.”
It’s a desperate situation, but it’s also one that countries like Canada helped to facilitate by ignoring and even supporting Israel’s apartheid actions, long before and well into the current genocide.
If Ottawa has, indeed, stumbled into some level of enlightenment, it is imperative that it take real action now. This must include:
Sanctioning all Israeli leaders and military personnel responsible for war crimes, including but not limited to the ongoing genocide in Gaza;
Imposing a comprehensive, two-way arms embargo on Israel now;
Cancelling the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement and ceasing all trade relations with Israel that maintain or contribute to the occupation;
Prohibiting Canadian charities from financing activities associated with Israel’s occupation;
Reversing all actions which have demonized and criminalized Palestine solidarity, including by rescinding all statements and decisions which equate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
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